This could also be titled the best use of leftovers yet. Of the many reasons I love Andy's cooking one of the biggest is the level of thought he puts into it. I DO NOT like to think about my food. I appreciate a good meal but I would prefer not to put forth the effort it takes to come up with and produce said delicious meal. No matter what we are working with, whether it be a freshly stocked pantry or a bare bones we-probably-should-go-shopping kitchen desert, Andy always comes up with something good for us to eat. This meal was produced from the latter end of the resource spectrum, cobbled together from odds and ends. And? It turned out amazing. Perfect cold weather fare and packed with veggies the kids unwittingly ended up eating. So here we go:White Bean Chili
You will need the following-
4 carrots
4 stalks of celery
2 cobs of corn (could also use canned)
8 cloves of garlic
1/2 of a white onion
1 package ground sausage
2 12oz cans of diced tomatoes
2 cans cannellini beans
3 red bell peppers
3 cups of beef stock
2 cups of water
3 T chili powder
2 T salt
1 T red pepper flakes
1 baguette and olive oil for optional bread crumbs
Start out with the easy stuff and brown the meat first. Choose a sufficiently deep enough pan as this will also ultimately house the entire chili, so you'll need some room. Remove the meat from the pan to drain, sausage in particular can be a bit greasy so we let it sit on a paper towel to remove the excess grease. Keep some grease in the pan for future browning purposes and get out your blender. Not for the meat. Grab your red peppers and give them a rough chop before tossing them in the blender with the 2 cans of cannellini beans and 1 cup (out of your 3 total) of beef stock. Blend until smooth. Now you can corral the rest of your veggies (carrots, celery, corn, garlic, and onion) and chop them up, rustic style. Meaning you don't need to be too thorough, large chunks are okay. Bear in mind that if you do choose to use corn on the cob you will need to remove the corn from the cob at this point too. Now you can retrieve your erstwhile pan and toss your chopped up veggies and half your allotted salt in to simmer over a medium heat for about ten minutes. It's time for everything to come back together now so return your meat to the pan as well as your mix from the blender, the remainder of the beef stock, water, and seasonings. Bring to a boil and then reduce your heat and cover to simmer this dish for at minimum 4 hours, 6 if you've got it.
This dish is yummy on it's own, but if you so choose as we did to serve it with a little something extra you can toast up some quick homemade bread crumbs. All this takes is some leftover bread, in our case a baguette, cut up into crouton sized squares. Arrange on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and a light sprinkling of salt. Bake at 400 degrees for about eight minutes, or until golden brown. Top your chili with these little bits of awesome, add spoon, and enjoy!
